Corregidora (Cyclopedia of Literary Characters)
At a glance:
- Author: Gayl Jones
- First Published: 1975
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Psychological realism
- Time of Work: 1947-1969
- Setting: Lexington, Bracktown, and Versailles, Kentucky; Cincinnati, Ohio; and Brazil
- Genres: Long fiction, Psychological fiction
- Subjects: 1950’s, African Americans, 1960’s, Family or family life, North America or North Americans, United States or Americans, Sex or sexuality, South or Southerners, Slavery or slaves, Marriage, 1940’s, Midwest, Ohio, Incest, Rape, Victims, Women’s issues, Oppression, Accidents, Brazil or Brazilians, Divorce, Duty, Infertility, Singing or singers
- Locales: Brazil, Cincinnati, OH, Lexington, KY, Versailles, KY
Characters Discussed
Ursa Corregidora, the narrator, a twenty- five-year-old blues singer at Happy’s Café in a small town in central Kentucky. She is a beautiful, light-skinned black woman. Ursa must undergo a hysterectomy as a result of injuries sustained when her drunken husband pushed her down some steps; she was pregnant at the time. Her consequent inability to bear children ineffably traumatizes her: It makes her feel like less of a woman and also contributes to her sense of guilt that she is somehow failing the generations of women who were her ancestors, because the...
[The entire page is 1729 words long]
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